As you can see in this month’s photo, the buds are breaking open and the leaves and fruit are finding their way to the bright, spring sunshine. The 7 month babysitting shift of fruit and vine protection has begun. We will begin with some organic fungicide sprays to keep the diseases away. Then we move into removing the unwanted shoots to balance the vines and give each cluster the space needed to ripen and mature. There is plenty of moisture in the ground and the calendar has space for this job so here we go for another great vintage of Virginia Wines!

Wine Retailers:

As wholesaling wine has always been a critical part of the Fabbioli Cellars business plan, I have learned a lot about different wine shops. Just as each winery is a reflection of the owners, the wine shops are often the same. Some are very casual with the family pet in the shop and the owner knows the customer names while others are more of a supermarket style with huge selections of wines. The key to all of this is the staff on the floor and the information they give to the customers. When I visit a wine shop to consider them as an account, my first question is “Do you have any Virginia wines?” The answer tells me a lot about how to proceed. I will always introduce myself and talk wine, but I do not want to sell wine to a shop that does not want to sell it.

There is a shop in Old Town Fredericksburg called The Virginia Wine Experience. From the name, you can see that this might be a good spot for a small Virginia winery to sell some product. That is accurate, but like most shops that emphasize Virginia wines, they also carry other fine wines grown around the world. It is important for wine drinkers to mix up their wine selections. This keeps the palate fresh and the wine drinker better educated on what they like and what is available. Edwin, Kerry and the rest of the staff at The Virginia Wine Experience make sure to give customers the wines they are looking for or the wines that will fit their needs. With a separate tasting and seminar room, they can make the wine experience so much more than a purchase. Contact them at 540-373-8878.

Bottling update:

I saw a different mobile bottling line last week. This one came down from Canada and was a line built in a box truck. It had built in hydraulic jacks to lift the truck to the height of the loading dock where it was set up. This was so clean and well designed that there seemed to be plenty of room and no extra motion for the workers. I will schedule to bottle my fall bottling with this line as well as encourage anyone building a line to use this as a model. It is about the same speed and cost per case as the local lines but it just seemed so much more efficient that having this in VA would help with both quality and costs. The current VA line will be used by 2 operators to maximize its use and minimize down time. This should help us all out as our wine production continues to grow.

Reflection:

Some of you may know that I had some health issues over the past few months. I am healing well now but was a little closer to the edge than I needed at this time in my life. That said, I have taken some time to reflect on what I am doing, what I would be missing and where am I going. I am pretty lucky! I do not plan on ever having to look for another home, or another job. I just need to make this project of Fabbioli Cellars work and all the pieces continue to fall into place. Enjoy some Virginia wines this month as they continue to get better and better.

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